VR – 1% real, 99% unreal

Oculus has today starting accepting preorders for its long-awaited Virtual Reality headset, a potential game changer in the gaming world.

To celebrate this new phase in the gaming scenario, it has been announced that all initial backers of the product on Kickstarter shall be given the device for free. Special arrangements will be made for backers living in countries where the product does not yet offer shipment. The beneficiaries will be personally contacted by Kickstarter via email.

This is indeed good news for the loyal and hopeful supporters of the technology. But a major impediment to the products success has emerged. A report by research firm Gartner has revealed that only one percent of the P.C. expected to run this year will be capable of supporting virtual reality.

VR needs at least 90 fps for satisfactory user experience and yet existing gaming systems support only 30 to 60 fps, that too on a single screen. What this means is that the technology will still take a long time to become mainstream and most of us will not be able to enjoy it without sizeable updates on our hardware and software.